Costa wins stage but Brit keeps comfy lead

Spain's Alberto Contador crosses the finish line of the eighteenth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 172.5 kilometers (107.8 miles) with start in Gap and finish in Alpe-d'Huez, France, Thursday July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

By JEROME PUGMIRE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: July 18, 2013;Last modified: July 19, 2013 11:26PM

LE GRAND-BORNAND, France — Chris Froome can already taste the champagne and has only one more day of climbing remaining before mounting the Champs-Elysees podium steps as Britain’s second consecutive Tour de France winner.

The race leader preserved his comfortable five-minute-plus lead over two-time former champion Alberto Contador on Friday’s rainy 19th stage featuring four big climbs and one hair-raisingly fast descent.

Rui Costa won it with a solo breakaway on the final ascent. Froome braced himself for a big Contador attack that never materialized on any of the climbs, nor in the long downhill to the finish line on increasingly wet roads.

“I certainly feel a big sigh of relief,” Froome said. “Today was a day I was nervous about, happy to put it behind us.”

Contador is 5:11 behind and has only Saturday’s final mountain stage in which to do that, since Sunday’s 21st and last stage is largely processional.

“It’s going to be hard for someone to take more than five minutes in 125 kilometers,” Froome said. “But having said that I don’t want to be complacent and want to stay switched on until at least tomorrow evening.”

Realistically, only an improbable slump — make that impossible, given how the Brit been riding so far — will stop the 28-year old from matching countryman Bradley Wiggins’ success last year.

“I am excited, but quietly excited,” Froome said. “It is a day where the whole team’s going to have to stay alert and control that last stage. One final big effort, then we can start relaxing on the ride into Paris.”

Costa secured his second stage win of the race, and third of his career, after catching Frenchman Pierre Roland about a quarter of the way up the final major ascent of Col de la Croix Fry.

German veteran Andreas Kloeden was second and Belgian Jan Bakelants was third.

The 127-mile trek featured two HC climbs and two Category 1 ascents between Bourg-d’Oisans and Le Grand-Bornand in the Alps.

Contador was tipped to attack Froome on the downhill stretch, but perhaps because of the conditions, he held back.

“Even though there wasn’t much attacking, it was really tough out there,” Froome said. “For us the objective was to stay on the wheel (of the other contenders),”